Is there any penalty for changing our mind regarding an apartment rental?
Outside of its financial terms, i.e., a certain amount of rent for a certain number of months, you shouldn’t worry yourself very much about your apartment lease. The actual non-financial rights and obligations of landlord and residential tenant are more or less fixed by law and custom, and they’re largely in favor of the tenant. Most of the things that seem one-sided to you (like the ability of the landlord to impose and enforce “rules” and to enter your apartment when needed) are actually things which in practice benefit you and every other decent tenant. Rules (and flexbility of enforcement thereof) are basically enforced only against the odd eccentric or degenerate who slips past the leasing agent and then tries to move in their 20 cats or have parties that last past four a.m. or piles of pest-attracting garbage to their ceiling. The right to enter the apartment and things of that nature are also good for you — the last thing you want when your upstairs neighbor leaves his bathroom
